Generally, an electrical connector includes some form of insulative or dielectric housing which mounts one or more conductive terminals. The housing is configured for mating with a complementary mating connector or other connecting device which, itself, has one or more conductive terminals. A connector assembly typically includes a pair of mating connectors, such as plug and receptacle connectors sometimes called male and female connectors. The interengaging terminals of the connectors, themselves, may be male and female terminals.
One type of electrical connector is a power connector which mounts one or more power terminals. With the ever-increasing density of components used in electronic packaging, electrical power connectors often are needed to carry high current between a circuit board and a complementary mating connector or other connecting device, or between one circuit board and another circuit board. A typical circuit board mounted power connector is a female connector designed to receive a power terminal blade or a bus bar. The current is distributed to various circuit traces on the circuit board.
A typical board mounted power connector includes a blade insertion cavity which extends vertically or in a plane perpendicular to the circuit board. Problems continue to be encountered with such connectors, because perpendicularly inserted terminal blades take up too much space above the circuit board. It would be desirable to provide a simple and efficient board mounted power connector that receives a terminal blade or bus bar in a direction generally parallel to the circuit board. Other problems with power connectors involved the rigidity of the connector housing when mating with a sizable power terminal blade or bus bar. It would desirable for the connector housing to have a controlled floating movement relative to the circuit board to avoid damage to the connector because of repeated mating and unmating with the terminal blade. Still further, vertically oriented power connectors which perpendicularly receive a terminal blade cannot be arranged in a tandem fashion, whereby a single terminal blade can be inserted through a plurality of connectors which would enhance the versatility of current distribution on the circuit board.
The present invention is designed to solve the above myriad of problems with board mounted power connectors and to provide improved features in such connectors.